Another large manufacturing plant has just been commissioned renewable energies in Northern Europe, which takes the title of the largest freshwater wind farm in the world. It is Fryslan wind farmbuilt in the waters of what is formally a lake, even though it is an area “stolen” from the sea.
The wind turbines are indeed installed in the IJsselmeer (not a mistake, it really has two capitals), also known as Lake IJssel, in Hollanda body of fresh water created when the Inland Sea was separated from the North Sea by a 32 km long man-made dam, called Afsluitdijk.
The plant, which started up a few months late and whose work began in 2019, has a total power of 382.7 MWand consists of 89 wind turbines produced by Siemens Gamesa, 4.3 MW each. A single turbine has an underwater part – and anchored to the bottom – of 28 meters, while the surface part in total is 180 meters high, including 115 meters in tower and 65 meters in radius of the blades.
The construction of the turbines involved several power stations around the world. In fact, depending on the components, companies from Friesland, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Portugal and Morocco were involved. The various towers have been arranged in such a way that the wind farm creates a hexagonal shapewhich according to studies is the one that limits the view of the horizon as little as possible, but at the same time allows a distance between the turbines of 600 meters, so that ships can navigate without difficulty.
The park, which has been active for a few days, will produce about 1.5 TWh per year, approximately 1.2% of Dutch electricity consumption, equivalent to the needs of 500,000 households. There will therefore be a saving of 800,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.